HEAT WAVE
by femmefan1946
Summary: Kaylee has set her sights on the handsome Captain. Does he have a chance? Part of my family saga, Les Fleurs de Mal, but for the time being I've given up on adding chapters.


"Kaylee, why are your toes blue?"

"Like it, Cap'n? It's just nail varnish. Cute huh?"

"Umm… " Mal tried to get past his mechanic's disconcerting feet, which were usually encased in heavy safety boots.

"Umm, yeah. How is this temperature thing comin'?"

"Got it made in the shade, Cap. I've run the greywater pipin' through the heevac so's we can use less energy in distillin' that for the recyclin' and that will pull some heat outta the HVAC so's it uses less fuel."

" 'Kay. Now in Captain Dummy talk?"

Kaylee slid out from below the engine.

"Whoah! Nekkid!" Mal swiftly turned his back.

"Am not! I got some clothes on." giggled Kaylee. "Anyways, we recycle most of our water right? What comes out of the tap for cookin' and washin' and drinkin'. So when it goes down the sink again, that's greywater. Not pure any more. An' if you use the light flush button on the commode when you pee, that's greywater too."

"Okay. Greywater."

"An' if you use the heavy flush button, that goes to the blackwater tank . That's what the honeywagon takes when we land dirtside. And not even that every time."

"So we distill greywater and reuse it." Kaylee was putting her tools carefully back in their places. The captain's back was still firmly turned. She smirked.

Kaylee wasn't the only one who had stripped down while Serenity suffered a heat wave. Mal had switched his usual longsleeved wool shirt to a red teeshirt that showed off his broad shoulders, strong pecs and massive biceps. Kaylee was impressed. That the tee was also rather clingy from the captain's sweat was kinda exciting.

Her tools neatly stowed, Kaylee, who was wearing tiny cotton shorts and a singlet, moved to stand behind the captain. His back stiffened, aware of her. Kaylee was a tip top mechanic, and the captain was not about to jeopardize that by noticing that she was also a girl, a woman, a very attractive woman.

He was determined that he had almost forgotten his first glimpse of her. And he had _certainly_ forgotten that his first knowledge of her existence was moans of passion as she screwed the useless Bester, the mechanic she had replaced.

Absolutely, she got the job by showing her genius with machines. Nothing else.

"So what I did was, I run the greywater through the HVAC and use the excess heat from the engine to reduce the fuel we need for distillin'. And I used the greywater to cool the compression coils so's we use less fuel for that. Good, eh?"

By now, Kaylee was only a few inches behind Mal. She was admiring his apple cheeks, set off nicely in his light cotton pants.

Mal, however, was feeling a little tense. He was uncomfortable not facing Kaylee while she chattered so gaily. But he was all kinds of uncomfortable about turning around, especially... ummm.

Kaylee was young, but she knew a few things about men. She might not know the word "pheromone" but she did know that her scent would carry a message straight to the reptile brain of any man near her. And Mal's cotton pants seemed to be getting a little strained across his backside, because of what was happening at the frontside.

"Anyway, I was thinkin'. We're okay with these society baths, I guess…"

"Society baths?"

"You know, just washin' all the bits, as they comes available."

"Oh, sponge baths."

"That what you call it?" Kaylee paused and let the idea of washing all her bits percolate for a moment. Was the captain's tee shirt a little sweatier? "Kay, so I was thinkin', with some tubin' , copper for preference but rubber would do, I could turn two of the passenger bunks into a shower room. I can do lots of things with rubber tubin'"

Definitely sweating. Kaylee took a deep breath. Nice. Not only women had pheromones.

"See, they got a sink/commode already, so I could use that for water supply and drainage."

"Why two bunks?"

"Well, we've never had enough passengers to rent 'em all out. So no loss there. An' with two, well you know what they say; save water, shower with a friend."

The back of the captain's neck was turning red.

Time to release him, she decided. "Anyways, if you wanna let the crew know that the temprachur should be back to normal in 'bout an hour, we should be fine. Think about the shower."

"Uh. Yeah. Fine. I'll let them know."

Kaylee was impressed that he was able to walk away. She half expected that he would bolt.

But she could wait. For a while anyway.

Until then, there was always her BoB. 


End file.
